Sea Surface Salinity from French RESearcH Vessels : Delayed mode processing of thermo-salinometer data set

French Research vessels have been collecting thermo-salinometer (TSG) data since the early 2000 in contribution to the GOSUD programme.The set of homogeneous instruments is permanently monitored and regularly calibrated. Water samples are taken on a daily basis by the crew and later analysed in the laboratory. We presen there the delayed mode processing of the 2001-2013 dataset and an overview of the resulting quality. The careful calibration and instrument maintenance, complemented with a rigorous adjustment on water samples lead to reach an accuracy of a few 10-² PSS in salinity orevenless. Global comparison with the ISAS13 ARGO gridded product shows an excellent agreement of the datasets. The SSS-Fresh dataset appears as highly valuable for the ‘calibration and validation’ of the new satellite observations delivered by SMOS and Aquarius.